rarely, if ever, used by the perfumer, the latter being more economical.

LAVENDER.--The climate of England appears to be better adapted
for the perfect development of this fine old favorite perfume than any
other on the globe. "The ancients," says Burnett, "employed the flowers
and the leaves to aromatize their baths, and to give a sweet scent to
water in which they washed; hence the generic name of the plant,
_Lavandula_."

Lavender is grown to an enormous extent at Mitcham, in Surrey, which is
the seat of its production, in a commercial point of view. Very large
quantities are also grown in France, but the fine odor of the British
produce realizes in the market four times the price of that of
Continental growth. Burnett says that the oil of _Lavandula spica_ is
more pleasant than that derived from the other species, but this
statement must not mislead the purchaser to buy the French spike
lavender, as it is not worth a tenth of that derived from the _Lavandulæ
veræ_. Half-a-hundred weight of good lavender flowers yield, by
distillation, from 14 to 16 oz. of essential oil.

All the inferior descriptions of oil of lavender are used for perfuming
soaps and greases; but the best, that obtained from the Mitcham
lavender, is entirely used in the manufacture of what is called lavender
water, but which, more properly, should be called essence or extract of
lavender, to be in keeping with the nomenclature of other essences
prepared with spirit.

The number of formulæ published for making a liquid perfume of lavender
is almost endless, but the whole of them may be resolved into essence of
lavender, simple; essence of lavender, compound; and lavender water.